Cry Me A River

Bruce Weir & Swerve, Swerve06.26.2013

When the flood of the century slammed into Calgary, we asked some of the photographers who freelance for Swerve to send us their most memorable shots. We also made some new photo friends.Andy van der Raadt
/ Swerve

The landscape-obliterating power of the Elbow River took 15-year-old, Eliza Gray’s, breath away.Glen Gray
/ Swerve

The river was cold—it seemed to lower the ambient air temperature by several degrees—and smelled awful, but neither of those factors prompted Eliza Gray’s reaction (see second photo in gallery). Instead, it was the landscape-obliterating power of the Elbow River that took the 15-year-old’s breath away.

The shot was taken by her father, Glen, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 20 where Highway 22X crosses the river. That a very specific time and place, but Eliza’s reaction proved universal in the following days as the immensity of the flood hit home, first in communities to the west of us and then in Calgary.

The Grays had driven out to the intersection to have a look at the rising waters. They were familiar with what the landscape used to look like as they often pass that way as they drive from their Springbank home to their place in Bragg Creek (both of which survived the pummelling).

When they pulled over to have a look, it was obvious that the familiar was gone. “There were big trees going by and the water was going right through the traffic circle,” Glen says. “It was so violent.”

The water had yet to peak when Glen took the shot. The same was true of flood-related activity on social media. In the following hours, as Twitter and Facebook lit up with news (both accurate and erroneous) and with pleas for the mayor to get a little shut-eye, it was the images that caught people’s attention. (One image of water in the Saddledome that made the rounds Friday, June 21 was quickly identified as the product of Photoshop and idle hands.)

Swerve is fortunate to have long-standing relationships with talented freelance photographers. A selection of their work—and some shots sent in by readers like Glen Gray—is seen in the following pages.

Taken together, the photos serve as proof of the power of nature. As we go to press, the city is alive with helping hands and relief fundraisers. It would seem that the human spirit is equally powerful.

When the flood of the century slammed into Calgary, we asked some of the photographers who freelance for Swerve to send us their most memorable shots. We also made some new photo friends. Here are their stories.

A Sense of Dislocation, by Heather Saitz: Photographer Heather Saitz shot the raging torrents of water and other catastrophic aspects of the flood that so many did, but she was far more compelled by the quieter dramas happening in the city.

Saitz, who contributes frequently to Swerve, lives in a downtown apartment located half a block from the evacuation zone. “We’re so lucky; it’s a little bubble with electricity, cable and Internet,” she says.

When she ventured out from her bubble, sometimes shooting at 2 a.m. until police advised her to return home because she was unsafe, she was struck by the eerie quiet and blackness at night, punctuated only by emergency lights and vehicles and car alarms randomly going off. “It can’t believe how isolated it feels,” she said earlier this week. “There’s a growing sense of sadness and melancholy.”

High Water on the Lower Deck, by George Webber: As near as George Webber can recall, it was 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. on Friday, June 21 when he parked his vehicle at Rotary Park on Centre Street and began walking toward downtown.

When he got down to the Centre Street Bridge he was struck by the silence. “It was like going into a church,” he says. “There was a sense of awe. People sensed they were in the presence of something spiritual, if I can use that word, of something powerful.”

The most obvious manifestation of that feeling was the need to take pictures. For Webber, that urge is a way of life, but he found it odd to be surrounded by fellow photographers. “I’ve never been in a situation like that in my life,” he says.

That slight disorientation might have been responsible for what happened next. Webber says he was “not really thinking” when he walked onto the lower deck of the bridge just as the water began coming over the road surface.

“I heard a faint yell from behind and turned around to see two police officers waving at me,”

he says. When he walked over to them, one of the men in blue explained that he was jeopardizing his—and their—safety. “I put my hand on his shoulder and said, ‘Sorry, officer.’”

High and Dry on the Northwest Bank, by Brent Mykytyshyn: From a seat on the patio of the Ship and Anchor, patrons can watch the world go by. Occasionally, they can see trouble coming.

“When I noticed that every third vehicle going past was a gravel truck, I told everyone, “I’m going home to put the ice packs in the freezer—we’re going to need them when the power goes out,” says Brent Mykytyshyn, a regular contributor to Swerve.

Mykytyshyn and his wife live in a fourth-floor apartment one block north of the landmark pub and woke Friday, June 21st—after a night spent at a Sled Island concert—to find it was time to pack a cooler. They left that behind, but grabbed some clothes; their laptops; their cat, Mecca; and a flashlight, then walked down the four flights of stairs to the lobby.

They evacuated to a friend’s home in Charleswood, and drove to McHugh Bluff to survey the damage. The Crescent Road vista has always been popular with dog walkers, dope smokers and Grade 12 grads on their big nights, but it quickly became the viewpoint from which to gawk at the disaster unfolding on the floodplain below.

Surf City, YYC, by Melissa Renwick: Seventh Avenue S.W. was underwater, but there were plenty of onlookers taking it in stride (and in roll, apparently). “What I found that, despite everything, everyone was in super-good spirits,” says photographer Melissa Renwick. Right behind her was dry land when she took the photo. “It was kind of like a cliff,” she says. “People would just stop and take pictures of themselves in front of the water.”

The Remains of the Days, by Andy van der Raadt: Andy van der Raadt documented this pile of ruined belongings piled outside a flooded Elbow Park home on June 23. A graphic designer by day, a photographer and blogger (NiceModernist.com) by night, van der Raadt pitched in to help by removing sodden debris from homes and delivering donations around the city. The 31-year-old also shot our cover of three guys in Elbow Park who were checking on a family member’s home on June 22nd. He wasn’t comfortable wading into the powerful current of the flood waters, but “they rolled up their pants and were off to the races.” Van der Raadt, the son of a newspaper photographer, says he tried not to take excessive risks. “You try to keep your head about you, but you get caught up in the moment.”

Don’t Forget to Play, by Todd Korol: Todd Korol captured this image of a man and his dog playing in the flooded streets as people paused to watch in the heavily damaged northwest neighbourhood of Sunnyside. For Korol, who spent 18-hour days shooting the flood in Calgary and southern Alberta for the international new agency Reuters, it says everything about the irrepressible spirit of Calgarians in the face of disaster.

This the second biggest flood Korol has experienced in 30 years of working as a professional photographer. He shot The Red River Flood of 1997 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, capturing the double horror of a massive flood and a fire in downtown Grand Forks that consumed 11 buildings and 60 apartment units before it was finally put out.

On a far more light-hearted note, Korol shot the image of the Richardson’s ground squirrels in the gallery above. He said the little creatures lined the city sidewalks after their homes were flooded in the East Village area and began coming up to him when he knelt down. “I’ve never seen gophers do that, and I’m a prairie boy. The water had gone down already, but I think they were freaked out.”

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